An 8 -year-0ld girl was dragged about 900 feet by a school bus today in Livingston County.
     According to State Police, the incident occurred about 2:40 p. m.  on State Route 436 in the town of
Ossian after three sisters were dropped off the bus.
     As the last sister was leaving the bus, driver John Coley, 62, of Wayland, Steuben County, told police
that he was not paying attention when he closed the door and trapped her backpack inside. Coley then
continued 900 feet before he realized the girl was being dragged, State Police said.
     The girl was hurt and was transported to Nicholas H. Noyes Memorial Hospital in Dansville,
Livingston County, by Dansville Ambulance.
    Another 8-year-old child on the bus said he hit his head on the seat in front of him when the bus came
to a sudden stop, causing an earache.
     Conservation staff in New Zealand have put down 33 stranded(擱淺)whales after several attempts to
refloat them failed.
     The whales shot Thursday were the last of 99 that stranded themselves Monday on Farewell Spit on
the South Island. Department of Conservation area manager John Mason says staff and hundreds of
volunteers had tried all week to get the whales refloated.
      He says they thought they were successful Wednesday when they got the whales into deep
water-but were saddened Thursday to find that they had swum back ashore. He says the condition of
the whales had significantly become worse.
      As well as the 33 whales that were shot, 36 had died naturally since Monday and 17 were
successfully refloated. Thirteen remain unknown.

1. The last sister was dragged by the bus because_______.

A. she stood too close to the bus when getting off
B. the bus driver stopped the bus suddenly
C. something was wrong with the bus door
D. her backpack was stuck in the closed door

2. It can be inferred from the first news that_________.

A. three sisters were dragged about 900 feet by a school bus
B. the driver stopped the bus immediately he realized his mistake
C. two children were hurt and sent to hospital
D. a boy was hurt when the bus started suddenly

3. How many whales were trapped ashore in total?

A. 33            
B. 36        
C. 99            
D. 13

4. The 33 refloated whales returned ashore on_________

A. Monday        
B. Tuesday        
C. Wednesday        
D. Thursday

     I'm often told how I have a dream job, that I work for a great company, getting to deal with the
leaders in social media every day, and especially that I get to work from my home.
     Usually the people who tell me that working from home is wonderful have never worked from
home.  They spend most of their career working from an office and hate it.
     In fact, I love being able to work from home and make my own hours. I truly appreciate being
able to drop what I'm doing to attend kids or go shopping, but there's a side to it we don't often talk
about, the hard side. No one wants to believe people like me, working from home, have anything to
complain about. Really, I'm not going to complain, but I do want to share a few things about
telecommuting(遠程辦公)that few home -based people want to tell you, because working from home
doesn't look so wonderful.
     One of the reasons I love my job is the flexibility. I know that I can volunteer for school projects,
meet friends for lunch and work out for an hour as long as I get my work done. But did you know
telecommuters have to make up the time if they wish to pepper their days with fun distractions?So
while my husband and kids are watching a movie, I'm working until midnight. Besides, when you
work from home, you're held to your phone and Skype(網(wǎng)絡電話)in case someone wants to talk to
you during business hours. So it's not so easy to be flexible!

1. We learn from the passage that the writer_____________.

A. is quite satisfied with her present work
B. can balance her work and family life well
C. complains about the disadvantages of working from office
D.   presents some unknown facts of working from home

2. The last paragraph mainly tells us that__________.

A. you're not as flexible as you think you are
B. you're usually a slave to yourself
C. the writer can always make full use of the freedom
D. the writer is always busy with her work

3. The writer probably agrees that__________.

A. east or west, home working is the best  
B. freedom should always come before work
C. get work done, or you'll have no freedom  
D. all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy

4. Who is the passage mainly intended for?

A. Telecommuters.  
B. Office workers.            
C. Job hunters.  
D. Researchers.

1. ______ the girl felt sad and lonely.

A. There were many friends but
B. There was nobody to love her so
C. There was nothing to do
D. Seeing the butterfly was caught

2. Noticing the butterfly was caught by the thorn, the orphan girl ______.

A. helped the butterfly escaped from the thorn
B. felt sorrow, but she didn't go up to help it
C. fell down on it too
D. failed to help it release from the thorn

3. The only thing that the little girl wanted was________.   

A. to be rich                      
B. to have her own parents
C. to have a lot of friends            
D. happiness

4.The neighbors all gathered around the old happy woman when she was dying,because ______.

A. they loved this woman deeply and they didn't wanted her to die
B. the woman had lots of money to be shared as soon as she died
C. they wanted to know the secret of her lifetime happiness
D. they wanted to pray for her after her death

     A small town in southwest Britain is banning (禁止) plastic bags in an attempt to help the environment
and cut waste－a step that environmentalists believe is a first for Europe.
    Shopkeepers in Modbury population 1,500, agreed to stop handing out disposable plastic bags to
customers on Saturday. They said paper sacks and cloth carrier bags would be offered instead.
     Last month, San Francisco became the first U.S. city to ban plastic grocery bags. Internationally, laws
to discourage the use of plastic bags have been passed in parts of South Africa and Ireland, where
governments either tax shoppers who use them or fine companies that hand them out. Bangladesh already bans them, and so do at least 30 remote Alaskan villages.
     Modbury, about 225 miles southwest of London, has also declared a bag ammesty (寬限期), allowing local people to hand in plastic bags that have piled up at home. They will be sent for a recycling.
     The Modbury ban was the idea of Rebecca Hosking, who saw the effect of bags on marine life while
working in the Pacific as a wildlife camerawoman. She said response in the town so far had been "really
positive".
     "Modbury is quite an old-fashioned town and a lot of people have wicker(柳條) baskets to go out
shopping anyway, "Hosking told Sky News Television.
     The World Watch Institute, an environmental research agency, states that 100 billion plastic bags are
thrown away each year in the United States alone. More than 500 billion are used yearly around the
world.

1. The underlined word "disposable" in the passage probably means___  .

A. acceptable
B. valuable  
C. environmentally-friendly  
D. long-lasting

2. It can be inferred from the passage that _____    .

A. most of the people in Modbury continue to use plastic bags
B. fewer and fewer plastic bags will be used in the world
C. San Francisco is the first city to ban plastic bags in the world
D. most countries in the world have passed laws to ban plastic bags

3. Which of the following would be the best title of the passage?

A. Environmental Protection            
B. Big Cities Banning Plastic Bags
C. British Town Banning Plastic Bags      
D. Effect of Plastic bags on Sea Animals

      About a hundred yards along the path, we came to a deep valley(山谷). On the far side of it, the
path led into some very thick bushes, rather than push through up again and rejoin the path on the far
side of the bushes.
      As I climbed down into the valley a bird flew off a rock on which I had put my hand. On looking
at the spot from which the bird had risen I saw two eggs. They were a kind that I did not have in my
collection, so I placed them carefully in my bag, wrapped in a little dry grass.
      As we went further down the valley the sides became steeper(陡峭) and not far from where I had
entered it came to drop of about twelve to fourteen feet. The water that rushed down all these small
valleys in the rainy season had worn(磨損,沖刷) the rock as smooth as glass. As it was too deep to
climb down, I handed my gun to one of them and slid down it. My feet had hardly touched the sandy
bottom when the two men jumped down, one on each side of me. They quickly gave me the gun and
asked me if I had heard the tiger. In fact, I had heard nothing, possibly because of the noise I made
sliding down the rock. The men said they had heard a tiger growling(咆哮) somewhere nearby, but
they did not know which direction the noise had come from.

1. According to the passage we know that _______.

A. the writer decided to cut down the thick bushes
B. the writer decided to walk along the valley
C. the writer wanted to stop climbing
D. the writer tried to find two eggs

2. When the writer found the eggs, he _______.

A. wrapped them in dry grass and left it on the rock
B. wrapped them in dry grass and took them with him
C. tried to find the bird
D. made the bird fly off

3. The reason why the rock was hard to get down was that _______.

A. it had been worn smooth
B. there was no grass on it
C. it was wet and slippery (滑)
D. it was soft and sandy

4. At the end of the story, the writer knew that _______.

A. a tiger had run away
B. a tiger was close to them
C. the men had seen a tiger  
D. a tiger had seen them